When Ronald Reagan had the good fortune to be shot by John Hinckley Jr., his presidency was headed for failure. He was widely unpopular, and his policy initiatives were failing in congress. Then, all of a sudden, the corporate media were fawning over him for the "grace" with which he responded to the event, he was a national hero, and he went on to dominate politics for seven more years.
Hinckley had no political motive for trying to kill Reagan. He had schizophrenia, and he had the delusion that he could impress Jodie Foster by trying to assassinate a politician, because he was living inside a distorted version of the movie Taxi Driver. We don't know what was going on with the guy who tried to shoot Trump, but he evidently has no connections with any political movement or organization and no prior indication of any strong interest in politics. I'm guessing -- could be wrong, and we may never find out for sure -- that he just wanted to make a name for himself. If it happened to have been a Biden rally that came to town, he would have taken a shot at Biden.
In any case, that somebody took a shot at Trump should not logically influence anybody's choice about who to vote for. It was a purely random event that means next to nothing, except maybe that the competency of the Secret Service is in question.
And as for some of the mean things people have been saying about Trump, they are all true and need to be said. He is a malignant narcissist, a pathological liar, and he has tried to overturn the results of an election using violence, and he has repeatedly threatened and called for violence against his own opponents, quite openly. He is an ignorant idiot. He has promised to institute an authoritarian regime and to put an end to democracy in America.
That is all true. It does not, however, mean that there is any benefit to trying to kill him. It is Trump and the Republicans, not their opponents, who incite violence. That is what should determine your vote.
Oh, and by the way, here is a non-exhaustive list of occasions when Donald J. Trump has publicly and explicitly called for politically motivated violence.
2 comments:
Apparently, Crooks was a registered Republican. What he did have in common with most of the Americans who shoot people at public venues was that he was a Caucasian male in his late teens to early 20s. These shooters belong almost exclusively to this demographic, which is symptomatic of both so-called "white fragility" and the country's commitment to letting mental illness go almost completely unaddressed.
I know, because I lived across from a mentally ill young man who terrorized us and other neighbors for six years. We ultimately left the state because, despite his alcoholic father's support for his pathological behaviors, nobody -- not the City Council member, not the cops, not the local mental health authorities -- would do anything to compel the sick young man's sick family to seek help. The young man lost his driving privileges in Michigan forever with his third DUI, and while his rage and stalking and criminal behavior (his father occasionally participated) never actually physically harmed anyone, the damage he did remains. I have yet to pursue PTSD counseling.
The lesson is clear: Individual rights supposedly "trump" those of the larger community, but what's probably actually going on is that it would cost money to address the social problems that beset our country, and we've almost never been motivated to do so. Rather, the financial triumph of the individual and the corporation -- by any means necessary, such as (in Shitler's case) taking laundered money from foreign despots -- is considered valid. The fix is in, and we just have to keep our foot in the brown man's ass so we can feel superior.
Why would there be no benefit?
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